Designing Grand Cities: what we can learn from Paris.

In the late 90s, the French government announced a visionary consultation inviting ten multi-disciplinary teams, led by architects, to completely re-imagine Paris as a sustainable 21st century metropolis. But the issues that the teams looked at -- such as transport, identity, green space, social equality and the environment -- are common to all cities. The teams' responses to the challenges confronting Paris were creative and inspiring and relevant to everyone either involved in making cities or who live in one. So there has been an international trend towards emulating such forward thinking consultation about the future of cities.